Arcadia Online
by spebonne
Summary: Max and her friends Kristen and Fernando have been selected to play the beta test of the new expension Arcadia Online : The Bay of Arcadia. What they don't know is that its Creator, the famous gamer Mark Jefferson, has much more nefarious plans than just making it a game. VRMMORPG AU based on the SOA universe
1. Chapter 1 - CONGRATULATIONS

**A/N:**

 **Hello everyone! And welcome to Arcadia Online! This is my second FanFic. It is basically a LIS Fanfiction but in a SOA (Sword Art Online) Alternative Universe! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

 **CONGRATULATIONS**

The place was dark and damp, a permanent fog filling the cavernous area. Walls of uneven rock were covered with moisture, mold and lichen. Sounds of dripping water, leaking from some crack, echoed in the room, only interrupted by the sound of clashing metal.

"Kristen watch out! The stun is coming!" A male voice suddenly called, raising above the clangs of blades hitting stone.

"I see it Ferny!" A woman's voice responded. "Max! You ready? This is it!"

"Aye!" A different voice, softer but more confident, rang out, moving all-round the cave as its owner swiftly ran around a large shadow. "Fernando! On my order, flash him like we said!"

"Roger!" The man's voice responded again and a quick mumble or words started to fill the room, a murmur rolling deeper and deeper accompanying the start of a faint glow in a remote corner.

Suddenly a deafening roar echoed in the cave, reverberating along the walls and causing stones and pebbles to fall.

"NOW!"

At the same time as the word was screamed, a blinding flash filled the room and a louder cracking sound interrupted the roar. For a short instant, all darkness vanished, revealing a hudge cavernous arena, with tree roots hanging from the ceiling, bones and skeletons of various forms covering the floors; and at its center, an enormous monster with skin as grey as the stone of the walls.

The monster left out a loud growl of displeasure, covering its face with an arm as big as a tree and a smaller, much smaller shape darted on the floor.

"NOW! Full attack!"

"AYE!"

"COMING!"

A tall girl charged behind a large round shaped shield, holding a curved elvish longsword horizontally with its sharp point extended toward the creature. The warrior had waist long, ink-black hair as well as long and sharp, knife shaped ears. She was wearing a heavy set of armor made of plates as black as her hair, contrasting with the pallor of her skin, as white as snow. As she approached, the sword emitted a growing white glow and suddenly, with a clashing sound, the blade slashed across the monster's large and loose belly, leaving a bright red mark behind it.

At the same time, a smaller girl dashed across the room as she reached for the hilt of one of her sheathed swords with her right hand while her left hand rose in front of her face. Her hair were bright pink, close cropped on her skull, they might have made her look like a fuzzy pink tennis ball if not for the longer bangs surrounding her face and the two pointy cat ears covered with a light brownish fur. Her eyes were of a pure artic blue color, sporting slited pupils, and her skin looked like it was made of porcelain. She was wearing a black, sleeveless kimono that would probably suit some manga idea of a ninja – although, seeing the kimono barely reached down to the level of a very short skirt, that was still up to discussion. The kimono was held by a large red Obi that wrapped around the girl's waist and tied up in a large stiff bow on her back. Above it, she wore a red and black chest piece that could be part of a Japanese suit of armor. On her wrists she wore armored bracers and fingerless gloves made of deep black material and engraved with a silver dragon. Her thighs and knees were human, and below them one could see cat like ankle and paws covered in the same brown fur as the ear on her head. Both legs were surrounded by black bandages wrapped from just above the paw up to mid-thigh, and protected by black shin guards. As she ran, a cat tail, covered with brown fur except for its very black tip, swayed behind her. For weapons, aside from the sharp claws one could see at the tip of her toes and fingers, she carried two short kodachi in two black lacquered saya -sheath for Japanese swords – crossed through her belt.

While she pulled one of the swords out, her left hand started to form seals with her fingers, a succession of shapes and signs before she extended her palm to the floor of the cave. Like by magic, a large black beast emerged from the shadows. A mix between a large panther and a sabretooth tiger, the creature ran across the ground with a snarl, its black fur undulating with each moves of its limbs. The cat-girl leapt out and landed on its back, legs tight around its flanks as she started to form new seals with her free hand.

As the tiger pounced toward the monster, she extended her hands to the grey stone like skin and a wave of black smoke started to spread around them.

She suddenly teleported above the creature, while her familiar started to bite and lash out with its claws at the monster's arms. She reached behind her with her free hand, pulling her second sword from its sheath.

"EEEEEEEEYYYYYYAAAAAHH!"

Her voice rose as her small body started to drop, slowly spinning as she flailed her arms, the blades emitting a faint black light.

The effect was radical. Just like her companion's claws, her blades lashed out at the creature, leaving long red gashes that crisscrossed over its back before she landed half crouched on the floor. She then pounced forward, landing on her beast's back again as it sped away, giving place to an incoming ball of fire, roaring with power as it exploded straight in the creature's face.

"Cover! Kirsten watch for the punch! We take our distance and redo that next chance!"

"OK!"

"ROGER!"

At the command the boy in a corner, a short olive-skinned man with a green pointy hat and a black robe, rose his staff in front of him, creating some translucid bubble; the woman in heavy armor rose her shield in guarding position preparing to receive the blow.

And right in time she did. The large monster, a stone troll about five times her size swung its large fist at her, hitting her shield straight on. She absorbed the blow, barely taking a step back and swung her blade quickly in riposte, the sword glowing bright white as it struck to the troll's skin, leaving another glowing red mark.

Using the opportunity, the short girl leapt from her charging beast, both blades giving out black light again as she crisscrossed a couple times on the creature's back, then landed on the dashing tiger, disappearing in a cloud of black smoke as a large fist swung toward her.

Max reappeared near the wizard she had called Fernando, astride her black beast. With a purse of her lips, she looked at the man as he chanted words and waved his staff toward the knight, creating a green light shining around her.

"Thanks Fernie!"

The troll started to straighten again, head pulling back as if preparing to roar.

"There it comes! Same plan! Don't falter!"

"Righto!"

As the beast's roar began to shake the cave, another blinding flash of light and deafening crack of lightning filled the cave. And once again, the knight charged, the cat girl transformed into a buzz saw of blades, both girls landing several blows before they pulled back to give space to another raging ball of inferno.

"That's it guys! We just have to keep up like that!" The cat girl encouraged happily as she nodded to herself. _So far so good!_

* * *

They fought for what seemed like an hour, the elven knight woman absorbing most of the heavy punches and kicks the troll was throwing at them, using every opportunity to slice at it with her curved blade; the wizard in a remote corner, chanting spells one after the other, laying both healing to his party members as well as blinding flashes and searing fireballs to the troll.

But most of all, the cat girl kept popping in and out in shadowy smoke, riding her beast, or running on foot, using one or two short blades as she landed numerous blows without staying in place, displaying acrobatic feats as well as sneaky deviltry. She would sometimes appear from the shades of a corner, one hand in front of her with index and middle finger straight up while the remaining fingers were balled, and she would suddenly spin like a dervish, landing three parallel slashes on the back of her foe before disappearing in smoke, only to appear above it, both hands on the hilt of her sword as she let herself fall, stabbing the beast shoulder before summersaulting away.

Or she would come on her tiger's back, lying across its spine as it sneaked between the troll's legs while she slashed him behind his knees.

She was nearly untouchable. Nearly. At one point, she missed her tempo and a gigantic fist landed hard on her back sending her fly to a wall in a loud scream of pain. She fell to the ground panting, and slowly pushed herself up.

"Max!" The elven woman called raising her shield to form a wall between the smaller girl and the troll. At the same time the wizard tossed her a small vial she quickly drank. Life returned to her like magic and with a curse she returned to the fight.

* * *

After maybe two more hours, the three combatants where panting heavily as they kept their dangerous dance with death, slashing, cutting, blowing up and cutting again at the troll's skin. Exhaustion was starting to fill them, and they had to focus on their tasks, on making sure they did not miss a step or missed seeing an oncoming attack. Frustration was also rising as the troll stood tall despite their continuous attacks.

Boredom was also creeping upon them, as the whole fight had been an endless repetition of the same patterns. But then a loud roar of fury suddenly echoed in the cave, the troll starting to pound its chest angrily.

"This is it! Give it all you got! And watch for the fists!" The cat-girl bellowed as she jumped on her beast's back again.

Not responding with words, her companion responded with acts. The knight screaming as she charged, shield first like a battering ram, blade second, stabbing, before she started to alternate slashes with her sword and blow with her shields. The wizard chanted rapid spells, energy balls raining on the troll in a constant draining stream.

The cat-girl put both her swords in their sheath and started forming complex forms with her hands in front of her as the tiger ran circle around the beast. Then both of them disappeared.

Black shining lines suddenly started to cross the shape of the troll. Two horizontal lines from left to right, two diagonals forming something like a roof. Short lines started to succeed until a total of seventeen had been drawn forming a very specific shape.

天

誅

Then, the cat-girl landed, one knee on the floor, one paw ready to push away, her arms extended to the side, the blades of her swords in reverse grip pointing back and her head lowered. Black shade came from her back forming two large wings in her back that slowly dissolved, rising in thin strands of black smoke. She whispered softly, "Tenchu," at the same time as the black tiger landed behind her with a powerful roar; and the troll froze with a gargle, then scattered into red particles of light.

A celebratory tone was heard in the cave as torches lit up all around lighting up the place. And in the middle, in gold letters, large words appeared, slowly spinning for all to see.

 **!CONGRATULATIONS!**

 **!YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE FREMONT TROLL OF SYRTAL!**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Bay of of Arcadia

**A/N:**

 **here is the 2nd chapter for Arcadia online. You may want to read it on AO3 for formating purposes. It should be released there soon as well!**

 **As usual do not hesitate to review and let me know how you find the story**

* * *

 **Arcadia Online – The Bay of Arcadia**

As a pop-up came in the middle of her sight, congratulating her for landing the killing blow and listing the various gains she had earned in the battle, Max heard the loud cheering and banter of her companion.

"YAAAAY! We beat that Troll!" The mage jumped out of his corner both arms raised high in victory.

The elven woman sat down, leaning back on her arms as she sighed. "Yay, but dang it was long!"

"Well of course we were only three for a Boss that normally requires a full party! And we didn't struggle that much!

"Easy for you to say! You're not the one running around with full plate armor and a sword! Lazy wizard!"

Max shook her head at her companions' antics. She had known them for a few years now, and the couple, because that is what they were after all, was always like that. She slowly stood, remaining silent as she slid her swords back in their sheaths. She looked at the earnings, pondering a moment.

The amount of experience and galleons was automatically shared equally between them, not that they would fight for it. Dividing the reward planned for a full party of 36 between just 3 players had to leave them with a hefty reward after all, especially at the level this latest boss had been.

She threw a quick glance at the item drop, most of them not suited for her class or fitting her needs, before she pressed a finger on the [ACCEPT] button. She looked at the upper left corner of her vision, checking for everyone status. A large health bar, with smaller ones under it for each of her companion:

NoirAngel LVL126: HP 2056/3674900 SP 50/918600

Frenandalf LVL90: HP1953900/1953900 MP 463100/463100

Eruastaniel LVL95: HP124225/2070400 SP156030/517300

She winced a bit as she noticed both her HP and SP being in the red. Despite everything Fernando was saying, it had been a very close call. Even Kristen's HPs were deep in the yellow zone and close to the 5% red zone, and she was the group's tank, much more able to take damages without losing her HPs. She could not judge how bad it had been for Fernando, he had leveled up and his gauges had been automatically refilled to their maximum.

 _It probably has been close even for him. He's the weakest one, after all._

She sighed and moved to sit on a stone. "Well… It was close… but we did it." She checked the time on her HUD and yawned. "Let's wait and recuperate until we are all green, then we walk back to Syrtal and probably log out for the day."

"Works for me! I'm pooped." Kristen responded with a tired voice.

"I guess so." Fernando nodded. "How are we potion wise?"

All of them moved their left hand in front of them, joining their index and middle finger together they swiped in a vertical motion, drawing their system menu. With several moves, they summoned their inventories.

"I got two mediums left..." Max said biting her lip. "Okay make that one, I'll use one to speed up the recovery."

"Just one for me." Kristen said with a wince. "Damned! That was closer than I realized!"

"Yeah, 2 medium HPs for me, and no mana left…" Fernando grimaced. "Yeah I guess going after a LVL95 boss with just the three of us was a bit ... daring."

"I told you so when you proposed this." Max retorted. "I remember saying we would probably wipe out!"

The mage scratched the back of his head with embarrassment. "Yeah… I guess… I just thought that with your special skill we would be able to make it." He smiled again. "And I was right. Man, that combo is a real killer!"

Max rolled her eyes. "Yeah, more than you think. I mean, I do deal a lot of damage, but there is a big price to it."

"How so?"

The knight rolled her eyes. "You do know our skills work like your magic, right? The more powerful they are, the bigger the penalty!"

"Well yeah I guess. But she never told us the penalty for this one."

Max sighed. "I have to give up 60% of my SPs and 25% of my HPs." She simply said. "Meaning I can't use it if I'm below 60% in my SPs and I'll automatically die if I have less than 25% of my HPs when using it. And I can only use it once per day."

"Ouch! That's steep!"

"Well yeah, but it's an automatic death for a creature in the yellow zone of his last HP gauge." Max shrugged. "Pretty nice when you're fighting a boss, right?"

"I can see that yeah." The wizard looked at his inventory again, smiling as he started to sort out his loot. He spent a while moving his fingers along the inventory that was projected in front of him, although, as menus were only visible to their owners, for the two girls he was just moving his fingers in the emptiness. "We did get nice stuff though." He stated after some time.

"It's just that you only share it with two instead of thirty-five, dork!" The knight said as she stood up, sheathing her sword and slinging her shield on her back. "Okay, I should be ok for the return trip. How about you Max?"

Max looked at her gauges again. _Mmm just above the 50% mark… Green, but still, not much more than that._ She pondered a moment before standing up. "Yeah… I guess I could make it. We'll have to take our time I guess."

* * *

The room was dimly lit, a single soft light shining from a remote corner, giving just enough light for people to see, but not enough to blind when opening one's eyes. The room was simply furnished; a wooden desk without a chair and a twin bed placed in a corner, along the remaining wall, a set of low shelves cluttered with books, discs and figurines, a dresser without doors where clothes hung or rested on small shelves. The decoration was also simple; a few posters were stuck on the walls, most of which showed fantasy characters similar to the figurines. On the desk, a small sound system was plugged on a much larger and advanced computer.

All in all, a normal room for a normal geeky teenager. Well, normal if one ignored the wheelchair parked by the bed.

Its occupant, a small girl with pink dyed hair, was laying on her back over the covers, dressed in pink sweatpants and a grey hoodie. On her head, a goggle like silver device with three blinking LED, two greens and one blue, was affixed with a single black wire connecting it to a plug on the nearby wall.

A soft chime broke the quietness of the room and the blue LED turned off. Behind the translucent visor of the device, the girl slowly opened her eyes, blinking slightly at the dim light. She stirred, stretching as she slowly sat up, before reaching up and pulling the device off her head and settling it on the mattress.

Scratching her head quickly, the girl hesitantly moved herself to the side of her bed, reaching for the chair. She pursed her lips pondering about moving out of bed. _It's late… Mom and Dad are bound to annoy me again about missing dinner only to sneak into the kitchen again._

She did not debate about her hunger long though, her belly growled loudly enough to make her blush with embarrassment, even with no one around to see.

"Well… I guess I have no choice."

With a sigh, she moved to sit in the chair, pushing on her arms for support, before she pulled her legs so as to put her feet on the footrests.

"It's 2026, we can fucking play in virtual world as if it was the real one by linking our brains to computers, but we still can't fix a fucking damaged spine… Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with this world." She muttered for what sounded like the hundredth times as she started to push herself toward the door.

She navigated through the house, not really surprised to find lights still on as she rolled toward the kitchen. Her parents had always been worry warts, and the fact she had not showed up for dinner would have made at least one of them, probably her mom, wait for her to show up.

 _They always were extra protective, but since the accident, they gave a new meaning to the idea of helicopter-parenting._

She turned through the door to the kitchen, maneuvering with the ease of someone having taken this path thousands of times, and came to a stop. Sitting on a chair around the dinner table, her father was typing on a small laptop.

The man, tall with brown hair and beard, looked up as she entered and smiled. "Hey, Max. Hunger finally got to you?"

Max nodded softly as she wheeled herself further in the kitchen. "Hi Dad… yeah… Sorry I missed dinner; I didn't think things would take so long."

Ryan Caulfield slowly stood from his chair, walking to the fridge and retrieving a plate he then put in the microwave. "Well lucky for you, your mom insisted I saved your share instead of eating it." He smiled as he teased. "So, what kept you busy? Been gaming again?"

Max bit her lip, she knew her parents didn't really approve of the time she spent in the virtual world. "Yeah… Fernando and Kristen wanted to try this new boss." She shrugged. "I would have asked to do it after dinner time, but I thought we would wipe out pretty quick and be done with it by then."

Her father nodded as he responded. "Yeah, I remember I got pretty absorbed by these thing myself at your age, of course ours were not as developed as yours." As the oven beeped, he pulled the plate out and walked to the table laying it at Max' usual place as she pushed herself to it. "Well, since you are late, I guess I don't have to ask if you beat it."

Max smiled and blushed. "Was close, but we aced it. Took that long because we only did it with us three. Probably gonna be a record or something." She started to eat, conscious of her father's eyes gazing at her, searching for something.

"Well… I'm happy for you… Still…" He finally started hesitantly. "Your mother and I are a bit worried about you, Max. You're spending more and more time in that game and… well we are afraid you will miss on the real opportunities of life, you know… like going out, having a boyfriend, the usual."

Max rolled her eyes. It wasn't the first time her parents had gone into these talks. They had reasons, she knew. It's not like VRMMORPGs had a good reputation, especially with the rocky start that had been the first ever game of this kind in Japan.

* * *

In 2022, the first VRMMORPG using the Full Dive Technology, Sword Art Online, had been released. It had hit the news pretty fast all around the world, although not for the reasons one might have expected. FDT allows people to really live in the virtual world, and every gamer recognized the potential even back then. What they had not recognized were the risks, and SAO had been a prime example. With the first ever game, the developer, a mad man, had trapped over 10 000 people in the game, using the brainwave scanning device called NervGear as a weapon to literally cook the player's brain if they were to die in game or if someone was to try and log them out before the game was cleared. It had taken over two years during which nearly 4000 players had died before one player finally cleared it.

One could have expected that this would bring the end to VRMMORPG and FDT, but instead they had created a new device, the Amusphere, with built in safeties and components that could not physically create the same damage as NervGear could. To accompany this development, hundreds of games had been created, some by big companies like Prescorp, some by smaller teams around the world.

The game Max was playing was called Arcadia Online. It was a fantasy world with many races and classes mainly built on skills rather than real character setting. The game really was built to ease the player in whatever style he wanted. A casual gamer would get as much fun from it as a hardcore one, and it had been a tremendous success in the US. The reason for it wasn't a secret though. To make the game, Prescorp Game had asked none other than the greatest VRMMORPG player they could find, aside maybe the legendary 'Kirito' who supposedly defeated SAO, Mark Jefferson to direct the development of their game. Jefferson was a genius when it came to gaming and thinking of ways to make a gaming world entertaining for both casual and hardcore gamers.

Thus Arcadia Online had been created, and had kept growing in the past year and a half.

Max had discovered the game only some six months before, through her friend Fernando. Having lost the use of her legs a couple years earlier, she had been slowly sinking into depression and seclusion. Her friends had tried to keep her active, to take her out, to cheer her up. But between the bullies at school who enjoyed bothering the handicapped girl, and the memories of how she had come to be confined to this wheelchair, Max had been more and more scared of the outside world; even if her parents had done their best to help her.

Virtual gaming had been a real saving grace for her. In the virtual world, she had become a recognized figure, her skills and effort quickly landing her in the top tier of Arcadia Online's players. But more importantly, and probably what made her spend so many hours online too, she could walk!

* * *

Max finished chewing her mouthful of mac and cheese. "I'm fine, Dad… I know I spend a lot of time but at least, there I've got friends…"

Ryan sat back in his chair, his voice warm as he continued. "I know, honey… but you have friends here too and…"

"I only have two!"

"You know you have more. There are many other kids in your class, I'm sure some of them like you."

"They are all bullies, Dad! Fernando and Kristen are the only ones who don't harass me!"

Ryan gave a soft sigh. "I… I just think you still should try to meet people in the real world. I'm sure there is more that would be friend with you, that there is a boy that would love you as you are."

Max stared at her food. "As if anyone would love a cripple…" _Aannnd I'm gay… but now is not the time. Better leave them to their delusion as there's no way I'd get a girlfriend anyway._

"Max…" Her father sighed. "I understand why you find the virtual world so attractive-"

"No you don't!" Max finally burst, dropping her fork in her plate. "You can't! You can't know how it feels to be able to walk and run again! You never lost the ability! You were never forced to live in a wheelchair! You won't be sitting in it like I am for the rest of your life!" Tears started to run at the corner of her eyes. "I know it is not reality! I know it's just a game, Dad! But… But in Arcadia, I can walk, I can run! I'm a normal girl there, just like any other players!"

Max wheeled herself from the table and started to push herself back to her room as she cried softly. She was tired of all this, of having to justify every minute she spent in the game, of having to discuss how she felt. She knew her parents were trying, but they would never be able to give her what she wanted, to be a normal girl again; so, she wished they would stop.

She closed her bedroom door behind her, wheeling herself to her desk and leaned on the wooden table, her face buried in her arms as she cried. _I hate this world… I hate that I lost my legs… I hate this room!_

Max had spent a lot of time crying in the past three years, for there always seemed to be a reason for it. Losing the use of her legs had been hard in and of itself, but all that came with this loss had been difficult; learning how to move around on her own, not being able to reach for high placed items or needing help to get past the simplest of stairs. Max had felt lost and to further her confusion, she had to give up the bedroom she had grown up in on the second floor to move into what used to be the guestroom because of the stairs.

She never really knew how long she cried. Her father had been kind enough not to pressure her into talking further. In fact, she thought she heard him walk to his room upstairs a few minutes before. She sighed, resting her head on her arms, staring at the wall. _I should probably say something tomorrow… urgh… why bother…_

A chime rose from her computer, announcing the reception of a new email. Max looked up and reached for the mouse, waking the screen up from its economy mode. _Who would write to me at this time? Probably some spam or something._

She clicked on the envelope and frowned as she saw the name of the sender.

* * *

From: MarkJefferson

To: NoirAngel

Subject: Congratulations

Message:

Dear NoirAngel,

I have had the pleasure to learn that earlier today, you and two of your friends have defeated our latest Boss, **The Fremont Troll of Syrtal**.

As a fellow player, I would like to personally congratulate you on your achievement.

Being a player myself and having first-hand knowledge of the Fremont Troll's strength as its creator, I am perfectly aware of how difficult defeating this creature must have been for a simple group of three. Indeed, Boss Class creature being designed to be able to give pause to even a full party of thirty-six, such a feat is worthy of being registered in Arcadia Online's history!

So on behalf of Prescorp Games, I would like to commend you for your success.

This extraordinary feat has pushed you and your friends amongst the 1000 best players of the game just in time for the selections of players for the Beta testing of our next expansion pack.

Because of your new found position, you and your friends are hereby invited to participate in the Beta Testing of our next expansion:

 **Arcadia Online: The Bay of Arcadia**

In addition, you and your friends, as every other selected Beta testers, will receive the following reward:

\- 1 limited edition Amusphere

It would be a great honor to have you and your friends valued impressions and comments on our future development.

Once again, congratulation on defeating the Freemont Troll of Syrtal!

Sincerely yours,

Mark Jefferson

Chief of Developments – Arcadia Online

Prescorp Games.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Trap

**A/N:**

 **Hey everyone, hope you had a nice end of 2018.**

 **Anyway here is chapter 3 for Arcadia Online. Had a bit of a bind on the writing and well it just came to me. Sadly the drought is still sort of here for all writing so I'll be slow on updates. But still working and still trying no worry.**

 **Have a happy new year 2019!**

* * *

 **The trap**

The wait had been stressful. Max and her friends had talked about the coming expansion nearly non-stop for the past two weeks, excitement rising high at the idea of being among the selected few to discover it. They knew there would be some non-disclosure agreement of some kind that would prevent them to speak about it freely, but still, gaining bragging right for such a boon?

The explanations for the testing process had been sent to them a couple of days after the original e-mail and Max had been a bit surprised by some of the information given to them.

First, the access to the beta server would be only possible through the limited edition Amusphere they were being given as a reward. The device would work completely fine with any other game, or so they were reassured, but the MAC ID number from the devices had been registered to the beta server and only those devices were allowed access. _Talk about paranoia!_

Second, the character they would be using during for the beta. They were given two choices – either use their usual character, or have a specific new character generated for the beta. The choice was theirs, but there were some set-backs in both cases.

If they used their usual character, the character data would be transferred from the main servers to the beta server, which means they would not be able to use their avatar on the main servers of Arcadia Online for the duration of the beta testing, in order to prevent potential conflicts in the characters data. However, they would retain their levels, stats, skills and inventory, and all the XP and Galleons they would get while playing would still be theirs to enjoy. Only the items they would get from the Beta - resources, drops and so on – would be removed from their inventory.

If they choose to have a new character generated, that character would be given the same level as their original character. Stats and skills would be reverted back to the basic and they would be able to reassign all the stats and skill points as they please. It would be quite a sweet deal if you wanted to try something new, and you could still decide to play on the main servers now and then. The drawback was that this character would die with the end of the Beta.

And third, they all had to be logged on the Beta starting day before 6 pm Pacific time, so as to be able to attend the mandatory briefing.

Max had understood the character thing, the expansion was supposed to be played as an extension of the current game, so it made sense to test it with the characters that would be playing it tomorrow; and of course you could not release a character with its stats formatted for a new version into an older server without creating bugs.

The requirement for the specific device was a bit harder to accept. She had grown accustomed to hers after spending days playing with it. It had become a part of herself, and being forced to use another Amusphere was like asking her to change her arm. On the other hand, she understood the security concerns and guess it was a way as any others to restrict access to the servers.

The last provision was rather unsettling through. Why would they have to be all gathered for the briefing? Usually those were made by some NPCs during the initial log in phase so as to allow for flexibility.

Well, it wasn't like she could really change the rules anyway, and she had to admit that she was intrigued by the new possibilities this new expansion pack seemed to offer.

Her personal life in the real world had not really improved. Since her outburst with her father, things had been rather tense at home. Her parents had been rather concerned that she seemed to seek her lost legs into a virtual world instead of coming to term with her handicap.

They had started to impose some new rules about login time, too. She had originally dismissed them; after all they never had really pushed about it, but this time, they seemed to be willing to enforce the rules. At least, they did forcefully disconnect her on two occasions when she did not show up out of her room for too long.

The first time had been rather surprising, and she really had been upset by it. She had been enjoying a stroll, walking in a forest like she used to do when a kid in the real world, when the world around her suddenly froze and a big warning sign filled her view. Then she had found herself staring at her father. She had to admit though, that she had remained online on purpose, refusing deliberately to break the limit her parents wanted to impose.

The second time had been more problematic. She had been in the midst of raiding with her friends and had not seen she was running late. It had been rather disconcerting to find herself frozen mid battle and back in her room.

It was also rather upsetting for her as she had to make the unwanted transition from a fully able body to a paraplegic one without preparation. Something even her brain and body had actually rebelled about giving her phantom pains in her legs that lanced her all along her spine.

So grudgingly, Max had started to watch for the time limit. She hated it and the fact her parents were forcing her to that wheelchair, to that miserable life she was having, to feel the pain of her broken body, day after day without an escape.

Even Kristen and Fernando had started to worry when she had let out some grunts in class as she felt like some ice picks were being shoved in her back. Of course, the other students had just found more fun into the tears she had been unable to repress.

 _How quickly did they forget the guilt of putting me there? Assholes!_

* * *

Max had been 16 back then, and a freshman at this new school in suburban Seattle. It could have been nice for her, and she did make two cool friends. The classes were great, especially the photography ones; and she had started to feel like life would finally be nice.

Except, she had forgotten to account for the bullies and jealous ones. A girl from the photography class had taken a dislike for her. Worst, the girl had known all of their classmate since early Junior High and Max being the new one had made her an easy target without friends to defend her.

And so, pranks had started to happen. Clothes ending up in the toilets during PE classes, glue being put on her chair, locker broken into and her books being dozed in various stuffs ranging from dog poo to shaving cream while passing through various sticky substances.

She had to be careful when using stairs or walking, some of the girls and sports jockey finding fun in tripping the shy girl. It had gone so far as to trap her in a bathroom stall and pour several pots of rotten fishes, and guts on her head.

Her parents and her had complained several times of course, and the school had assured they were doing all they could to sort the problem out, but that without proof of who the guilty parties were, they could not push matters too far.

Her dad had threatened to sue the school, the involved students, their parents and the principal personally; but most of the other students were rich spoiled brats with parents giving much more money to the school than hers. And so, nothing changed.

Until the hazing went too far.

Max had been working on her photography project that day, taking pictures from the roof of the main building. She had just finished a rather difficult framing of the Pudget Sound Bay and was returning inside. More interested in the result of her work she had not paid attention and had not seen the rope that had been placed across the stairs, nor the girl from the photography class and her friends waiting in ambush.

She was looking at the screen on the back of her camera when her foot got caught in the rope, and she fell. She fell, rolling down the stairs as her classmates laughed their ass off. She fell, feelings her ribs cracking on the steps, her head bouncing on the floor, the pain in her arms, her legs. She fell, rolling down until she stopped, her back slamming against the wall at the bottom of the stairs, drawing more laughter from the bullies.

Until, the blood started to pool around her unconscious body. Then there were screams, or so she heard. From what she had been told, the bullies had not accounted for the broken frame that usually supported the magnetic system that held the fire doors open when there were no emergency, they had not judged it a hazard because it was not in the straight path of the stairs; not that Max thought they would have cared anyway. But when Max fell, she uncontrollably tumbled toward it and her fall had ended with her impaling herself on the metallic square pipe.

The pipe had barely been a foot long, but the tip was sharp where the metal had sheared, and her body was small anyway. With the momentum she had gained during her fall, it had easily pierced her back, gone straight through her spine and poked out of her belly.

She had not felt any of that. To her, it had been falling down the stairs, fading to black half-way, and waking up three days later with a broken arm, an egg sized lump on the back of her head, 3 cracked ribs, a broken leg , two ugly scars on her lower back and belly, and no feelings below the waist.

Needless to say that the school and every student involved had been sued, big time. The girl that had planned it even had to face the judges on aggravated assault charges. Not that she did any jail time for it - with the lawyer her parents could afford, she just had to do a dozen hours of community service and had some suspended jail time in her record, which would be wiped out clean on her 18th birthday. _Talk about fair! All her shit stops when she turns 18! Not like I get to walk again when I do!_

The principal had been fired and had to pay hefty reparations for reckless endangerment through criminal negligence, not mentioning having to do jail time, seeing that unlike the students he had been protecting, he didn't have the means to pay for a big ass lawyer.

The school had threatened to close under the sheer amount of money they had to pay to Max, which had been like a double punishment for the rich parents as they had to bankroll both the school's payout as well as their own for their children's behavior.

Basically Max was loaded, or would be when she turned 21. The money had been put aside to pay for College - _Not that many colleges would want of a wheelchair girl! -_ and medical care – _And I would gladly give it all up just to get my legs back!_

Things had improved at school for a while; a short while. Then the bullying had started again, for different reasons. And it was still mostly ignored by the staff, so long as it kept to verbal abuse - _can't risk them being sued if they let the jerks hurt me again, right? It's like they never learn, really!_

All this to say, Max needed her escape.

* * *

The new Amusphere was delivered two days before the beginning of the beta. Max had welcomed the packaged delivery gleefully, rushing to the door, ripping the box from the delivery guy's hand, thumbprinting the receipt, and slammed the door at his face to rush back to her room in maybe thirty seconds flat. Okay, maybe not that fast, but still!

She had opened the box with excitement; after all, it was not every day she got some new toy to play with, and it meant the novelty of the beta test was getting closer. The device was very similar to the standard one. The shape was clearly the same, although it seemed a bit heavier. The casing was not plastic though, but some silver-coated alloy that gave it a very precious feel, like it was some tiara or crown. On the back was the standard AMU SPHERE engraving of course, but on the sides were the words 'Arcadia's best 1000 of 2026' finely chiseled in cursive elvish-like letters.

Max had been tempted to just display this monument to her skills; the proof that in at least another world, she was placed in high regard and not bullied and abused by jealous entitled jerks. But she had to use it for the Beta, which means she had to calibrate the device.

 _Yeah, let's talk about it! As if it's so easy making a device detect the full range of motions of your legs, when you can't move said legs!_

Max winced a bit as she remembered the ordeal she had to go through the first time. She had to battle with several 'Calibration Failure' as she had been unable to make the device detect that her brain wanted to move her legs. Not that her brain did not try to communicate with her legs - after all, the nerves were cut halfway, not at the brain – but she had forgotten the feelings that the various move demanded. It had taken two days before she finally figured how to imagine her legs moving through the required motions, in a way that was recognized by the computers.

 _Dog! I hope I remember how to!_

She had looked at the time and set herself on the task, hoping to finish it before the end of her allotted time. _No need to risk having the new device confiscated!_

And there she was, finally! Two minutes before the beta server's opening. Max was already lying on her bed, the new diving device on her head as she stared at the small clock displayed in the corner of her view.

Kristen and Fernando had talked with her until late the previous night, deciding on what they would do for the character selection and to meet directly at the server's boot up. The couple had had some reservation about transferring their characters to the beta servers. Max had none. Online, she was NoirAngel and the cat-girl's body was as much her own as her real one – in fact, one could argue it felt even more her own than her broken real one. She had never even considered the other solution.

She tapped her fingers on her mattress as she counted the seconds before the servers would open, her heart rushing with anticipation.

 _There it is! 5:30 pm Pacific time!_

She smiled happily as she spoke.

"Link Start!"

* * *

The world around her faded, every sensation, every sound and sight disappearing. She went through the usual device boot up sequence, with the device slowly creating visuals, sounds, tastes, odors and touch like sensation to test the synchronization of her brain. She went through the strange phase of feeling as if someone was moving her legs for her as the system just checked one thing after another and reported with a green circle that everything was ok.

 _Yeah, thank you, I know!_

She went through the login procedure and smiled as she found herself of in front a huge virtual gate with an elvish guard in front.

"Welcome to the Bay of Arcadia! Please confirm your identity, fellow adventurer!"

In front of her, a prompt appeared.

 **Do you wish to use the following identity?**

 ** _NoirAngel_**

 **[YES] [NO]**

Max smiled and pressed a finger on the **[YES]** button.

"Welcome, NoirAngel, please enter and join the others in our new adventures!"

The huge wooden door behind the guard slowly opened with a cracking sound and Max felt herself being teleported.

She landed in the middle of a large medieval square amidst a couple dozen other early comers. She looked down, checking her hands and, most importantly, her feet. She even tested the feelings of her tail. Then she went to check the presence of her swords in the small of her back before looking up for her friends.

They met up a few minutes later, all of them looking around to see if there were familiar faces, and to see the look of that new area.

The buildings around them were not the shiny white of some of the big cities they were used to. It was more of a dirty stone greyish color with moss and lichen to it. Everything looked like some large fisher's town maybe. The ground was paved - _so not a small village_ \- but the pavement was uneven, and ancient - _so not a rich town either_.

Max could see some kind of hills around a large area at the center of which they were. West of them lied the Bay with its body of sea water trapped between two cliffs, at the points of which stood two watchtowers.

East from them, further inland, a huge castle stood proudly; although its dark stones and narrow windows gave it a gloomy sinister feel.

 _I wonder what they planned in this area, but with the buildings around, we don't see much. Probably, on purpose._

Max started to look at the other players. Small groups started to form, probably friends and guild mates. There were nothing very striking about them, although her eyes did stop on a small group gathered around a tall blue haired girl who was wearing some kind of kimono, although she had left her right arm out of it, a straw made pointed hat that reminded Max of those she saw in Japanimations. She was carrying at her waist two non-descript swords, a katana and a shorter wakizachi with no decoration whatsoever

Max wasn't sure why she paused on that specific character. Maybe it was because the girl wasn't wearing anything that looked like high ranking material despite the fact she did not look like some newly generated character. Maybe it was the non-nonsense ronin look she was harboring with her crossed arms, as she bit through some long straw. Or maybe it was the white skull and crossed bones across the back of her black kimono.

Either way, Max just looked at the girl and at the group gathered around her and shrugged.

She was chatting with Kristen and Fernando, trying to decide on a strategy when a bell tolled six times in the air and a man in a dark red hooded mantle walked slowly up the few steps leading to a wooden stage, erected on the east side of the square.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Fellow players of Arcadia! I welcome you to the Bay of Arcadia!"

Chatter slowly stopped as people started to move closer.

The man raised his hands, swiping them around. "From now on, this is your world! This is your life!"

Under the hood, Max could see the toothy grin the man wore as he continued. "I mean this literally, as you won't leave this world easily!"

Chatter started to rise among the players while the man continued louder. "As you will notice, the log out button has been removed from your player's menu, making it impossible for you to log out on your own. What more… the device you all have been given to access this world are not standard Amusphere but disguised NervGears. As such, they do have the capacity of killing you."

Interjections of anger started to rise and some of the players even pulled out their weapon angrily.

"And they will do it! If anyone tries to disconnect the devices without the server's clearance, the device will deliver a strong microwave burst to your brain, literally cooking it!" The man smiled openly as he started to move a hand in front of him, certainly manipulating a menu.

"If you die in game, the device will deliver the same burst." Exclamations of surprise and disbelief met this announcement.

"Although, I was feeling generous when I set the servers today and you will have exactly 20 seconds and not one more, to be revived, baring what, your death will be as effective in real life as it has been in the virtual one."

Of course no one really felt like this was a generous thing. The man kept moving his hands, prompting a large map to appear in front of him.

"This world is comprised of 5 areas, each of them possessing a dungeon with a Boss. You will have to clear all of these dungeons to retrieve the necessary keys that will let you access the Blackwell Castle." As he talked, each area blinked on the map, although none gave them the location of their dungeons.

"To clear the game, and let your Full Dive device release you, you will have to defeat the final boss waiting for you in the Blackwell Castle - Lord Hades!"

The man pulled his hood down with a mischievous smile, and every gathered player recognized the face, the smug face with its glasses and its beard, as Mark Jefferson himself looked down on them.

"As I reveal myself to you today, I wanted to point another rule." Light effects started to shine around the square, surrounding characters one after the other. "From now on, you won't be able to hide your true self!"

Blue light suddenly bathed Max and her friends, and all of them gasped in surprise as they saw the changes in each other's features. Gone was the handsome middle-aged wizard, replaced by a teenager boy with a heavy brow. Gone was the slender elvish face, replaced by Kristen's real face on which someone had grafted long pointy ears. Even their body suddenly took the same shape as their real one.

Max looked all around the place, seeing the changes in character's shape – strong muscular warriors turning into thin wiry and small boys, slender girls and boys turning into plump overweight characters. The only solace was that the VR world system would not allow for one to play another gender than their real world one, so they missed on the ugly guy wearing a skirt. _Except maybe that guy impersonating a Scottish warrior._

As she looked around, Max felt a bit of worry, for she was certain everyone would see her true face as well. _Is, my body also displayed as the real one? Are my legs… as thin, as sick looking as in reality?_

She did not have time to focus on that point. The man's voice caught everyone's attention again.

"Welcome to the Bay of Arcadia! Welcome to your death! And I hope you will face it bravely!"


	4. Chapter 4 - Scramble

**A/N:**

 **Hey folks! I'm not totally over the block but I started to get a bit more inspiration, so here you go a new Chapter!**

 **I'll try to work on the stories as I get inspirations for them for now, so they may not progress as regularly as I'd like. But better than nothing right?**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Scramble!**

The shock was such, in the conference room, that the sound of a pin dropping would have been deafening. All eyes were turned to the secretary that had interrupted the meeting with the emergency message. All were searching on the woman's face, for a sign that would make all this be a prank.

At the head of the large mahogany table, a burly man with grey hair and thin rimmed glasses sat with his eyes wide and his jaw hanging. Recovering a bit faster than the rest of his executives, he shook his head before his first words since the interruption left his lips.

"He said WHAT?!"

The secretary took a step back at the snappiness of his response before she shyly repeated the message.

"He… he said that the players logged in the new expansion beta won't be able to log out by themselves unless they clear the game and… that any attempt of forcefully disconnecting the players or the servers would result in their death…." The woman bit her lip as she paused before she continued. "He… also thanked you for this opportunity to prove he -"

"To prove how much of a mad man he is!" The voice boomed in the meeting room. "What the hell is he thinking?!"

The secretary and all the other participants in the meeting shook their head trying to show they had no clue of what had been going through the mind of the only missing executive. Sean Prescott, Owner and CEO of Prescorp, the company by which Prescorp Games was subsidized, slammed his fist on the desk.

"Get the mad man down here right now! I don't care what he is doing!"

The secretary seemed to pale at the order as she whimpered. "But … sir… We don't know where Mr. Jefferson is! His message has been left in the system several days ago and security said he never showed up today, and…"

"Enough!" The man pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index as he seemed to think. "Call the FBI and explain the problem, tell them we have a SAO incident, and let's hope they understand how serious it is!"

His pointed a hand at the Customer Service Manager. "Get the name and contact info of every player involved in the Beta! All of them! Have someone try to contact the listed relatives if possible! Flag those that have incomplete or erroneous contact info and see with Accounting to retrieve their banking info; they had to pay the connection fee somehow. Give those to the whole thing to the FBI, they'll probably ask for it anyway and I'd rather we give it right away than entering a pissing match!"

He turned to the PR executive, "Alert the Media's, every Channel! We may not be able to contact all the relatives in time so we have to get the information to them anyway we can! We can't let any of those players die because their relatives didn't know they should not disconnect them!"

The woman in tailored suit nodded before shyly asking. "Sir… do you really think they would die if…"

"HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW! Maybe they will or maybe they won't, but until we know more I certainly won't take the risk!" He stood leaning on the table. "I don't care what everyone think! I don't care about the PR Nightmare! I won't let that asshole use my company to kill people! So you fucking make sure we don't suffer fucking casualties that could have been avoided!"

He then turned to his head of security. "As for you, find me the fucker! I don't care how you do it! I don't care who you call, FBI, NSA, CIA, hell even call a fucking psychic if you have to! I want the bastard hung by his balls in front of me so I can kill him myself if it is the last thing I do!"

The people around the large table started to scramble around, using their phone to issue orders, typing on their terminals to retrieve data and send messages as the man sat back, grumbling while he tried to come up with solutions.

"Sir? Should we maybe consult with the Japanese?" His Head of Research and Technology inquired.

"How so?"

"Well they were the first to face this kind of incidents; surely they have learned a few things from it. At least they surely would know of some mistakes we should not repeat."

Sean Prescott drummed his fingers on the noble wood as he pondered the argument. "Do it! Contact their Embassy, their Minister; fuck, contact the Emperor himself if you need! Coordinate with the State Department and the FBI, they may want their input too."

He knew his company was done for, none of the company that ever faced such incident survived, be it Argus with Sword Art Online, or RCT Progress with ALfheim Online, both had sunk under the litigations and PR nightmares. The best he could hope now was to mitigate the damage and avoid the name of Prescott forever marked with infamy.

* * *

Special Agent Samantha Myers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was sifting through her morning reports when the voice of Deputy Director McCarthy boomed through the floor.

"Myers! In my office, NOW!"

With a groan, the brunette woman in regulation tailored suit, locked her computer before scrambling toward the open door of the large corner office.

"Close the door." The man simply ordered as he sat back in behind his desk. "I need you to grab Tech Specialist Scott and get to Seattle now. A jet's waiting for you at Andrews."

"Sir?" The woman in her thirties frowned at the cursory orders.

"We got ourselves a shitstorm. Some lunatic at Prescorp decided to create a SAO of his own by taking hostage the whole group of tester for their next game. The branch office is already there coordinating. You and Scott get there and take charge of this mess before it blows up in our face."

Samantha swallowed hard at the news. "Sir… Tech Specialist Scott is on leave today… she … took the day off to participate in Beta test for a Virtual Game…."

The director rose his head with is eyes wide in surprise, pausing as he replayed the various leave requests he had signed on. After a few seconds he closed his eyes pressing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "Don't tell me… It's a Prescorp game…."

"Afraid so, Sir…"

The man groaned. "Should have figured it… I wanted her to go because she's the smartest game freak nerd we have…. Guess I should have seen she would be on the short list for those kind events…" He sighed. "Who else do we have?"

Samantha pursed her lips. "I guess the next best choice would be Tech Specialist Jones… although he would be far from Brooke's level."

"Grab his ass and toss it in the plane as you go." The man said with a dismissing wave of his hand. "I'll forward you the details… Oh and try reaching Scott. We never know maybe she isn't among the hostages!"

Samantha turned on her heels and quickly moved out of the office responding on the go. "Will do, sir… although I doubt we'll catch a break here."

Deputy Director McCarthy looked at the door as his best agent, not that he would admit it to anyone, left his office. "Yeah, as if Murphy would let us catch one…." He mumbled to himself as he reached for his phone.

 _"State Department, Secretary of State's office."_ The assistant responded as she picked up the phone.

"This is Deputy Director McCarthy of the FBI. I need to talk to the Secretary."

* * *

She was not sure how long it really took for everyone to truly understand the extent of the announcement they had just received. Meredith Watson, reporter for WONN Channel stared at the video that had been in her emails of the day.

 _Is this a joke? Is this guy serious? It can't be! It must be a prank!_

These kinds of thoughts kept conflicting in her mind as watched the video over and over again, trying to find any fault in the speech, any fail in the set of rules set by the man with brown hair and beard and glasses, any signs of video tampering that could indicate a fake. But she could find none.

"Meredith! Sean Prescott is preparing for a public statement! You should go to Prescorp now!" Her boss suddenly called across the editorial room.

"On my way!" she called back as she stood from her desk picking up her jacket and purse. She paused a moment looking at the framed picture sitting next to her computer screen. _Juliet, I really hope you haven't signed in on that Beta!_

With a thought for her daughter the woman rushed through the floor to the elevator.

Twenty minutes later she was standing in front of the Prescorp headquarter holding her microphone as she made the introduction for the coming announcement.

"Greetings everyone, this is Meredith Watson, reporting live from Prescorp Headquarters here in Seattle, Washington, where any minute from now, Sean Prescott, Owner and CEO of the large corporation, is scheduled to make an official announcement concerning the various unconfirmed reports that have been spreading through the media today about Arcadia Online. As you can see, a podium has been prepared in front of the building's door and several members of the Seattle Police Department as well as the FBI and other Federal Agencies are present either to ensure the safety of this announcement or to take part into it."

As she finished her sentence a burly man with grey hair appeared behind the podium and slowly the buzzing created by every press members died down. Sean Prescott looked at his notes a moment before he raised his head and faced the journalists.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, as many of you might know, I am Sean Prescott, Owner and CEO for Prescorp and I'll address the issue of the various rumors and claims that have been filling the media and the net for the past hour."

His voice was deep and posed as he spoke with a stern and decided face. "At 17:30 Pacific Standard Time, Prescorp Games initiated a Beta testing for the next expansion of our famous game Arcadia Online. The Beta test, final stage of a standard development protocol before actual release, was to be accessible to a selection of a thousand player considered as the bests due to some difficult achievements. This criteria has been set as per our increasing will to develop games closer to the experience researched by our customers."

He looked down at his notes pursing her lips. "At 18:00 Pacific Standard Time, we received an announcement from Mark Jefferson, head manager of Prescorp Game, the subsidiary in charge of game development. This same announcement, as you might know, has been sent to various media channels and made the following claims."

"First, the collector edition of Amusphere we have sent to the selected beta testers had been, without the knowledge of our company, modified to meet the specs of the former NervGear devices that had been banned following the SAO incident in Japan."

The man's voice never wavered as he kept going.

"Second, the beta test and its selection has been high-jacked by Mr. Jefferson and every player are now trapped into the virtual world without any mean of logging out on their own volition. Third, any attempt of disconnecting the servers or forcefully disconnecting the players from the servers would result in the discharge of a high intensity electro-magnetic pulse that would literally cook the brain of the any player wearing the modified device when disconnected from the server. Fourth, any in game death where the character hasn't been resurrected within twenty seconds, would result in the same EM pulse being discharged by the character's player's headset."

As he calmly enunciated the claims, silence grew heavier along the gathered reporters, most of which did not believe the rumors were being confirmed.

"Finally, the only way those players will ever leave the virtual world alive will be through a specific code that will only be released when the full game would be cleared by a player."

Sean Prescott took a longer pause letting things sink into the head of the people. "As you might imagine, upon receiving this statement, we immediately tried to contact or localize Mark Jefferson, without success at the time. In addition, our technical support teams have been working as hard as they could to close all login access so as to prevent any additional victims, however we have confirmed that all players selected for the beta had been logged in at the time of the announcement."

A soft buzz started to fill the rows of reporters.

"We have also shut down every Arcadia Online servers other than the Beta servers after ensuring that every logged in players have been able to willingly disconnect. Those servers will not resume activity until we can make certain that no scrap of the code endangering our beta players has been sneaked onto the main servers, even if this means Arcadia Online may never run ever again!"

His voice boomed with resolve as he made the claim.

"Prescorp Games was made to bring entertainment to people, not to be used by a mad man to take hostages. As such we will do whatever is possible to ensure the safety of our customers, no matter the costs."

He took a deep breath as if trying to regain composure. "We are working with the authorities, either Seattle PD, Washington State Police or the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, in order to ensure that no player actually trapped in Arcadia Online beta server will be forcefully disconnected by a friend, a member of their family or just an acquaintance. We would appreciate your help in spreading the following advices.

First, for your own safety do not attempt to log on any Arcadia Online server until further notice. Second, if you know of anyone currently logged in Arcadia Online or its Beta, please do not attempt to disconnect them! It is of the utmost importance that you let them be until they log out on their own! You may be putting their lives in danger. Instead please contact the authorities on the special hotline for which the number is currently being communicated to you, so that support and aid can be sent to you."

The man looked down for a moment, before raising his head again. "Ladies and Gentlemen. I personally am horrified that my company has been used in such a way, and I promise you right now that I will not rest until every player currently logged into our servers has been logged out from the system, nor will I rest until Mark Jefferson is brought to justice for this crime! Every computer specialist, every technician, every developer from Prescorp Games or any Prescorp subsidiaries dealing with software development will be working 24/7 to try and find any possible way we could disconnect those players without endangering them as soon as possible.

We have requested the help of the Japanese authorities and more particularly, the help of the specialists who have been working on the Sword Art Online incident a few years ago. We know they may not help us in rescuing the hostages right away, but we believe that their experience will at least help us provide support to those hostages and increase their chances of survival."

"Ladies and Gentlemen… This is a crisis like Prescorp never met. And I will personally make sure that we do all that is possible to see it solved with as few victims as possible. Thank you."

The man turned and left the podium without any additional word, quickly heading toward the building as he engaged an animated discussion with man in a labcoat.

Meredith listened to her earpiece trying to see if the studio wanted her to add anything, but she quickly noticed that the anchor was back on screen. She pondered a moment, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, then headed for one of the man in standard Federal Agent suit.

"Err Excuse me sir, I'm Meredith Watson and …"

The man turned his head and shook his head. "Sorry Madam, we aren't taking question at the moment. We will come back to you in a-"

"No! I'm not here for that… my … my daughter is an Arcadia Online player… and do you think she could be involved?"

The agent paused, eyeing the woman and reading the worry on her face. "Sorry… Do you have her name?"

"Juliet… Juliet Watson."

The man looked at his tablet, quickly sifting through documents, then winced. Meredith did not even need to hear his words to feel her blood freezing, his facial expression was enough.

* * *

"Is Maxine in her room?" The voice of Ryan Caulfield called from the kitchen as Vanessa was setting plates and cutlery on the dinner table.

"I think so. She had that new event starting today, I think." She responded with a tone showing her concerns about her daughter spending time in her virtual games.

The bearded man appeared through the door checking his watch with a soft grunt. "Well, there's still a bit of time before dinner is ready… I guess we could give her a few more minutes."

The woman paused a moment looking at the TV set that was playing its program in mute. "She is late though…" Vanessa sighed, shaking her head. "I don't understand why she loses herself in those fake worlds. She's just missing out so much of her life!"

Ryan came behind her and wrapped his large arm around the petite woman. "You know why she finds them so attractive, hon… She is just missing her legs… Give it time, she'll get over it."

"But it's been years already, Ryan! And she's wasting so much time! So much time she could spend making friends, maybe even falling in love!" The brunette woman leaned back along her husband's large torso. "I'm sure she would feel so much better if she found a nice boy… one that would show her she can be loved even as she is…"

Her husband smiled warmly trying to comfort her. "Do not worry… I'm sure it will happen one day. She's just scared of the world, of getting hurt again." He kissed the side of her head softly. "Can't really blame her, with all that happened."

Vanessa seemed to relax a bit, her eyes lost toward the TV set without really watching it. "I suppose you are right…." She turned and kissed her husband softly before laying her head on his chest as they stood.

It was not an easy thing for her, seeing her baby struggling with her life and not being able to help. She knew she had been hovering over her little girl maybe a bit too much, at least she admitted it; but on the other hand, seeing her only daughter so broken after the incidents, she could not help it. Her concerns for her girl had kept growing as reports of continuous bullying and harassment kept coming even after the previous bout had ended up so tragically. _What will they do next? Kill my little girl?_

Vanessa had nothing against the Virtual Games as such. She knew her husband had played games in his youth too, well she had met him on one after all. But as she saw it, her Maxine was not just playing, she was slowly escaping reality through this media, and she felt that after those spoiled kids had robbed her daughter's legs, these games would rob her daughter's soul.

"Do not worry, Nessa… I'm sure all will go okay… Besides, who knows, maybe she will meet her boy in this game of hers!" Ryan chided as he released his hold and pulled back.

"We both know it is not something as common as books and movies make it appear."

"True, but it did work for us." He smirked, giving his wife a little pat on her head, making her grumble. It was a game between them, the tall gigantic lumberjack of a man and the petite, almost pocket sized compared to him, woman. Even at their age, these little display of affection kept being shared.

The smell of cooking food started to fill the house, making Vanessa salivate at the idea of eating her husband cordon bleu level cooking; and Ryan turned and started to walk toward the corridor as the phone started to ring. "I'll go get Maxine for dinner while you get that."

"Okay." Vanessa reached for the wireless phone and picked up. "Caulfield residence."

 _"Hello, is this Ms. Maxine Caulfield's house?"_ A voice responded.

"Yes. This is her mother Vanessa, how may I help you?"

 _"Mrs. Caulfield, I am Jennifer Stockton from Prescorp Games Custromer Services. I have an urgent matter to discuss with you…"_

But Vanessa wasn't hearing the voice anymore. As she had been responding to the call, she had turned and face the TV and at the very same moment, a news announcement had started to flash on the screen.

 **SAFETY ALERT: ARCADIA ONLINE PLAYERS TAKEN HOSTAGES! PLAYERS ARE ASKED NOT TO LOG IN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! IF A MEMBER OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD IS ALREADY LOGGED, FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY, DO NOT FORCEFULLY DISCONNECT THEM! CONTACT FBI AT 1-800-555-1616 OR DIAL 911!**

Once she finally computed what she had just read, Vanessa Caulfield, age 41, 5.08 foot, 115 pounds, dropped the phone and ran toward her daughter's bedroom as she screamed, "RYAN DON'T!" rushed through the room as she spotted her husband's hand reaching for the head of their brunette daughter laying on her bed, and tackled her 6.6 foot and 250 pounds husband in a way that would have made Seattle Seahawks' famous Safety "Bam Bam" Kam Chancellor feel inadequate.


	5. Chapter 5 - (Virtual) Life goes on

**(Virtual) Life goes on**

The first hours had been horrendous. Filled with angry screams from other players, the confusion brought by the idea of a game becoming lethal, the realization that death could very well strike them even in this virtual world; everyone on the plaza started to panic.

It was not like they could really ignore the added mortality, the _Sword Art Online_ incident had proven beyond a single doubt that a VRMMORPG could be set in such a way as to kill its players. Even if they tried to reduce the effect it had on their mind, to occult the fear, they could not just dismiss and believe it was simply a complete hoax, like the original SAO survivors might have done.

No, they were forced to face this fact, just as they were forced to face the fact that at any minute, someone could willingly or unwillingly sever the connection between their physical body and the servers, triggering the killing mechanism in their modified Amusphere without them being able to do anything about it.

Once the initial uproar had dimmed, they all found themselves looking at each other, trying to see if anyone's avatar suddenly disappeared, indicating a forceful disconnection. Tension had increased as, second after second, minute after minute, no incident occurred; everyone starting to dread that they would be the first to be pulled out, the first to die.

Max had been able to feel her own heart pulse madly as her eyes had just remained stuck on the clock in upper right corner of her vision. Her breathing had turned erratic, growing stronger and stronger. Unlike most of her fellow players, she knew she had a time limit, she had known her parents would – not could, but would – pull the device from her head and yank her back to reality if she did not log herself out before a certain time.

She had felt her friend's eyes on her, both knowing of her parents' rules, both dreading the moment the catgirl avatar would freeze and shatter in small polygons.

Minutes trickled, the fatidic moment arrived and… nothing happened. Max had not dared to relax; she had not been able to. In fact, it had gone so bad that warning signs started flashing in her vision as the safety systems came on.

Half an hour had gone; then a full hour and then an hour and a half, before she finally began to relax and believe that something had prevented her parents from sending her to her own demise. All along, her friends had been with her, shielding her from others, supporting her as she slowly recovered.

When they had finally been able to move, half the square had already been cleared by the other players. It was not that surprising, and Max had scolded herself too. Every single person that had been trapped in this game was among the best player for the same VRMMORPG. They were the closest thing to pro-MMORPG players. And all of them knew that in such a game, resources were the main concern. Especially once those resources became linked to your own survival.

And so group by group, person by person, those who had overcome their initial shock, those who had forgone their fear had moved out to the surroundings fields in order to start gathering materials, experience and coins necessary to their own survival.

Two hours after the start of the server, Max, Fernando and Kristen joined them in a bid to increase their skills and equipment.

* * *

Hours became days. Days became weeks. And weeks turned into a month. Players had formed into small groups, small guilds, finding a schedule, working the fields to hunt and gather materials while reducing the risks.

Most groups worked mainly during the day, but the pressure of crowded fields, the reduced income that came with being forced to share with the general population led some groups, the hardiest, to work mainly by night, when the creatures were more aggressive and dangerous.

One could have expected tension and even conflict and war to erupt as players would bump into others, competing for a hunting spot, for a mining spot, for a resource or another. But strangely, the few disagreements had been solved without violence.

The fear of unnecessary death, even your own, had driven people into being mindful and seeking toward compromises rather than open war. It had led many to seek counsel with other guilds, a neutral party, in order to help arbitrating issues, and soon some sort of protocol, an unwritten book of rules, had evolved.

A guild leader list had been created and shared among players; leaders from the 'night guilds' were available to call during daytime in order to be a neutral party. Leaders from the 'day guilds' were available during night time.

Of course, there were many less conflicts during night time than there were during the day – there were less guilds playing during the night after all.

The difference between daily drops and nightly drops also helped developing a trade system. Rarer and more difficult and dangerous to get, the night drop materials were a necessity to craft various weapons and armors; just as the common daily resources were. Both night and day groups therefore had no choice but to exchange their loots in order to progress, unless they wanted to switch their schedule.

Once again they found their neutral party in order to make things as smooth as possible. Even among the hardcore players that had been selected for the beta, there were some that just could not stomach leaving the safety of the town if it meant risking their real life. Rather than being discarded by their friends, most of these players had come to fill an essential role in every MMORPG, that of a crafter.

It began rather simply, with the frightened member of the guilds staying behind in the city to practice Smithing, Woodcrafting, Tanning, Tailoring, Potion making, and the various other trades the game system offered, while their more courageous friends went to hunt and gather the resources needed to help them progress.

After a couple weeks though, the system shifted a bit, crafters communicating between them, trading tips, resources and formula; to the point they formed an unofficial guild that soon became official.

That 'Merchant Guild' became the neutral party for all trades, buying from both day and night groups, selling to both the day and the night groups, crafting, maintaining and buffing the equipment of other players in a bid to help vanquishing this game.

In the end, players strangely recreated their own society as a way to prevent conflict and death.

As in all society, though, not every member is a kind and lovable one. Bullies and aggressive people are still part of the world, no matter what you might wish; but well, no world is perfect.

And as much as you might try to prevent death, it may and will still occur. The first death had come later than most might have expected. With the caution everyone had shown, forewarned by the SAO incident, the casualty list had stayed at a happy zero for several days. No one had even been forcefully disconnected, which everyone, unknowing of what was going on in the real world, found somewhat miraculous.

Still, it had to happen. A player, lulled into complacency and a false sense of safety after several days of uneventful hunting, misjudged his strength and the situation he and his group were into; and before he realized his mistake, a critical hit from one of the creatures they had been fighting removed the last of his remaining HPs.

Every player had been startled by the sudden sound of a deep and dismal howl, a horn blown from the highest tower of the castle. No one knew what it meant, until the surviving members of his group finally came back into town; shoulder slumped, head down, and their faces showing the despair and sadness at the loss of their friend.

That horn, resonating with sickly celebration, marking the end of a life, had blown a few more times since; sometimes a single gloomy tone; sometimes, in the most unluckiest of fate where the whole hunting party had wiped out, several successive tones.

While the first nine days had claimed no life among the 1000 trapped players, after the first month only 911 remained.

And the first dungeons had yet to be found.

* * *

For Max, the month had been a mixture of emotions. Following the dreadful fear that she would die due to factors she had no control over, she had felt anger at being the victim of yet another bully; and a sick one at that.

For Max had quickly recognized what Mark Jefferson wanted. The man wanted to prove he was better than them, better than the one thousand best players, better than those who had achieved incredible victories against various stage of the game he created. To her, Jefferson was just another person wanting to prove his superiority by hurting and bullying others.

For a girl who had thought VRMMORPG would be a safe haven from the bullies who had put her in a wheelchair, it had been a cruel twist and she hated the man for removing that hope from her.

She also hated him for shifting their avatars to match their real world body. The emaciated legs her feline avatar now sported were a cruel reminder of their real condition. That and it also attracted unwanted attention.

She even felt as if she had been back in school, at some point. Wherever she and her two friends went, she was either faced with questions she did not want to answer, or mockery from people who needed to alleviate their fears by taking it on others.

In the end, Max, Kristen and Fernando had given up joining larger hunting parties, preferring isolation and peace. It required careful planning and attention, but they had done it before and their teamwork was very well established.

The one thing she did not have, compared to every other players, even her friends, was the nostalgia, the sensation of homesickness when thinking of the real world. Unlike the others, she had no real wish to return to the reality of her life. She had her friends, they had a relative peace of mind, no care for exams; she had her legs, however misshapen, she could walk, run, jump and no one treated her like one more dead weight they tried to ignore.

She still worked to end this madness, though. Her friends wanted to go home, to be with their families, and Max loved her friends and wanted them to be happy. Besides, she had to admit she missed her parents too. But she had decided she would make the best of the time she had in the game, having fun with her friends, exploring, trying things out, while remaining careful and taking every precaution possible.

They had elected to work mainly by night. They were a small group and they could not really compete with larger guilds for a hunting spot during the day. Besides, Max' skills were more effective in the dark.

This also gave them time to explore and enjoy the sceneries and the busy town during the day.

They kept informed of the various groups' progress, of the latest mapping details uncovered, and tried to participate – although discretely – to the various planning sessions and summons a guild or another organized for a specific quest or mapping expedition.

That night, though, they were working on their own. The trio had been hunting for a couple of hours already, moving deeper in the south-western region, following the coast. It was a well explored area, several groups having moved day and night through the woods overlooking the large ocean. They had pushed further west than usual, seeking different preys, but had remained in the mapped part of the world.

"I wonder when someone will find that dungeon." Fernando mused as he sat on a rock.

They were resting, having spent strenuous time in battle. They had found this small clearing at the edge of the explored map, where they had killed a few Timberwolves, getting stocked with a nice amount of fur, fangs and meat.

Looking at the slowly recovering bars on the upper left corner of her vision, Max shrugged. "No idea… I guess it will be found when it will be found. No one's really willing to push their luck."

"I know… it's just… It's been over a month, you know. I kinda miss home."

Kristen sighed. "We know… And everyone misses home. But being careless won't help us getting back."

Max nodded her agreement. "Yeah, better take our time and be safe. Slow and steady wins the race!"

"I guess, you're right, yeah…" The wizard shrugged as he stood up. "Okay, what's next? Should we head south for a bit, keep to the known grounds, or shall we push a bit more west?"

Kristen frowned a bit. "I'm not really sure we should push our luck. We're not a big party and it would not take that much to get swamped."

"Yeah… I'm not sure going west is a good idea." Max mused.

"Oh come on! We don't have to push that far west. Maybe just a bit, a couple minutes then we turn south in an arc… I'm tired to hunt the same things every night! Let's see if we can find something different." The boy argued.

"Yeah, I know, but I'm the one taking most of the heat while we keep you safe in the back. I'd rather not take too much risks." The elf bit her lip and looked at Max. "What you think, Max?"

The pink-haired girl twitched her ears, a very cat like move, as she thought. She had to agree with Kristen on the damage part. While she did not take as many hits as the elf knight, she still took more than the long ranged wizard, and those she took were painful. On the other hand, so far they had not been that badly hurt, and she too wanted to find new things to try out.

"I guess… I guess we could try a bit, yeah… Carefully, of course." She finally said as she pulled out the map menu. "I guess we could try to follow the coast a bit for up to ten minutes or so, then we loop south and back east. Just enough to add a small bit to the map, like this." She explained as she waved a finger on the dark part of the map.

"Yay! Finally!" the boy eructed happily.

"But!" Max interrupted. "We stay grouped, we watch the gauges and we take it slow." She pressed. "And if we use one quarter of our remaining potions, we immediately turn back, whether we reached our planned limit or not, agreed?"

"Yay, sure!" The wizard quickly responded.

The knight woman took longer, pondering the question before she sighed. "Fine. But no AOE spells and we try to keep to small groups. We don't know what we will find so, let's be careful. I dunno how much I can tank them."

"Fine by me." Max agreed.

They checked their equipment, prepared their weapon and slowly moved out of the clearing.

Several minutes later, after several fights, in a small clearing overlooking the ocean about half way from the point of the land on top of which stood the southern of the twin towers towering each side of the bay, they found themselves standing in front some stone-carved stairs slowly sinking down the ground.

"Those are strange." Max pondered as she looked around her, scanning the clearing for signs and indication of what the stairs could lead to.

"What do you think is down there?" The elf warrior asked warily.

"Beats me." The small girl responded with a shrug, her cat tail swaying behind her as she thought.

The wizard pursed his lips. "Should we go inside?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea… It'd be much harder to run if we find ourselves in pinch." The knight argued.

"Oh come on! What pinch? It can't be much more difficult than the mobs around its entrance, and so far all we got were the same old wolves. We barely used any potion since we moved out!" The wizard pushed.

"Fernie, you know as well as us that a dungeon can be much more difficult to beat than the lands surrounding it! We don't know what's in there! We should tag the location and go back to town; see if we can get others to come with us to clear it!" Kristen snapped back.

"And how are we gonna convince them to come if we can't tell them what's down there?! It's not like it's the area dungeon! We're way too far from the tower for that!"

Max remained silent as she looked at the cave's entrance. The walls were slick and covered with moss, but one could distinguish the fading engravings, not that she could read them. Part of her agreed with Kristen, that the cautious and reasonable approach would be to mark the location and come back later. But like Fernando, she also wanted to see what was down there, find out more information to give other guilds.

"We should check it out a bit." She finally said, eyes still looking down the stones.

"Yes!" Fernando cheered, raising a fist up.

"What?! Max, you can't be serious!" The elvish knight started to argue but Max raised a hand interrupting her.

"I said we should check it out a bit. I didn't say we were going to clear it."

"What do you mean by that?"

Max moved a hand paw behind her head, scratching behind one of her ear. "I think we should move carefully down the stairs to the first room and check what it looks like. If we can see what the mobs are, we may be able to have a better planning on how to deal with them with the other groups." She looked at Fernando, staring as she got more serious. "We don't engage the mobs though, not without more information! Kristen is right, it's harder to run away from a cave or dungeon, and if this really is a dungeon, then there's bound to be a lot of creatures, too much for us to safely take on."

"Come on Max, we could try to get one if it's alone!" The wizard argued.

"No! It may call his friends and raise an alarm! We can't risk it for now." She looked at her friends. "This is a scouting mission, not a raid! We sneak down the stairs to the first room or the first sight of a mob. We look, and we get out. Nothing more. Agreed?"

With a disappointed grunt, the wizard nodded. "Fine!"

Kristen pursed her lips, hesitating. All three of them knew they would not go if she refused; after all, a tank was not a party member you could ditch. "We don't fight?"

Max nodded. "Not if we can avoid it, no… And at the first sign of agro we run back upstairs and haul ass!"

The slender woman in armor sighed. "Okay… fine… But I swear, if you two decide to push further than the first door, I'll ditch you there and get back to town on my own!"

The wizard leaped and kissed the elf's cheek. "Thanks hon! And yeah we won't go further! I swear!"

Max nodded her agreement with a smile. "Yeah, just a quick glimpse and we are out. Besides, as Fernie said, this should be too far from the tower to be the dungeon's entrance."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hey here I am again!**

 **So I been a bit busy this week because with Husky we're setting up a discord channel to discuss our various stories!**

 **It is open to all so feel free to join the server : 8xu4kNT**

 **Cya soon!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Despair

**Despair**

"Hurry up! We've got to get out of here!" Amidst the clashing sounds of weapons striking against armor, shield and blades, the frantic call of the elvish knight echoed in the corridors.

They had begun their exploration carefully, advancing slowly through a long and dark corridor, NoirAngel using her detection skills, marking traps, disarming those she found. The walk had been long, the corridor proving itself to be much longer than they had expected; but it had been uneventful, without any creature to fight.

This started to concern the three friends, though. The longer the corridor became, the harder it would be to get out, if needed. Even worse, they had no idea where they were heading, but the general direction had been toward the lighthouse tower of the area, and they began to fear they had in fact found its entrance. This would be bad, but no one believed they could have stumbled on it so far from the tower itself.

And so, they had kept going, keeping a careful watch over both the path forward and the part toward the exit. It took them longer than they thought, but in the end, they finally reached what looked like the access to a room.

Quietly, they had taken formation, the elf taking point, her shield held in front of her, the cat-girl only a couple steps behind her with her shadow beast at her side, and the human wizard several paces behind, his staff held in both is hands, ready to throw magic spells.

All was quiet. Nothing was astir. No sense of danger or hint of anything remotely threatening was visible. Until someone triggered a trap.

It was all that it had taken to send the whole situation into a hellish mess. One step. One unfortunate step. Had the foot been placed a couple of inches either side, nothing would have happened. After all, two of the adventurers had actually walked this path without triggering anything.

The third, however, was not so lucky.

The wizard had seen no sign, no hint of anything. Still, when his left foot touched the one stone of the floor, the shrill and ear shattering howl of an alarm horn filled the corridors, reverberating along its length. Darkness was suddenly split by the dozens of torches lighting up along the walls with magical woosh. And from the door in front of them, hundreds of goblins and orcs suddenly poured, squealing and grunting as they charged like a tsunami.

"FALL BACK!" The cat-girl called, with both her swords in her hands as she blocked a strong sweeping blow from a huge orc on the left side of the elf, whose shield was raised to parry the spears and weapons of the oncoming wave. "Fernando! Fireballs! Stall them so we can move! Kristen, we walk back as fast as we can while covering!"

A mystical chant began to resonate behind the two girls as they struggled to block the oncoming tide of creatures. Quickly though, they entered an unspoken pattern, with the knight blocking blows behind her shields, stabbing the occasional arm that came in sight with her longsword, while the cat-girl slashed at the orcs and goblin that found themselves locked in a strength contest with the elf.

It was a losing proposition, though. For each orc and gobbling that fell under the deadly whirlwind of the twin kodachi, two or three more pressed forward to take its place; Max came to curse the virtual world mechanics that had the corpses shatter in tiny polygons instead of staying in world. _At least we could have used them as a fucking dam!_

The chant grew in intensity, reaching its climax, and both fighters needed no warning to suddenly duck as several burning orbs swiftly roared over them before colliding with the wall of monsters. Like two waves charging into each other, fire and body met in a huge explosion, reverberating through the long corridors. Only the magical origin of the fire ensured its destructive power did not swallow the three adventurers as it breached and turned dozens of raging orcs and goblins into scattering polygonal ashes.

The respite offered by the devastating attack was brief. Upon feeling the blast, Max darted to her feet and screamed. "RUUUUUUNNNN!"

The wizard did not wait, quickly making for the exit as the knight and the shinobi leapt after him, their feet beating the stones of the floor as they tried to escape. Behind them, roars and squeals of the horde followed them, gaining on them despite their numbers. Max kept an eye on the distance separating them from their enemies, her heart sinking as she saw them catching up much faster than she thought possible.

"SHIELD!"

The command was given when she judged their escape to be impossible, and with the swiftness and order of a group well used to work together, they turned to face the creatures. The knight braced, holding her shield between them and the horde, shouldering the impact of the wave while the small fighter at her side protected her flanks.

It was not perfect. Blades and spears managed to hit their marks, leaving blood-red marks on their bodies. But they held. Their HP dropped, but they held. They had to. In that instant, their only hope of escaping laid on the caster, on another wave of fireballs. So, both warriors fought to protect him, to keep the creatures away.

The knight grunted as she received blow after blow on her shield, sounds of clashing metal reverberating through her body. The shinobi moved swiftly around her, intercepting those who managed to escape the iron wall of the shield, disappearing and reappearing left and right, blades slicing like buzz saws.

"Fernando! If either of us goes to yellow, use your healing spells! Whenever your fireball is recharged, you cast it!"

"Sure thing!" The mage responded confidently, his eyes already focusing on his HUD, watching his partners health gauges like a hawk, making sure his Mana was at a sufficient level to cast his magic, and looking at the slow, much too slow, ticking of the tiny clock counting down the seconds before he could unleash hell again.

Yells mixed with the echoes of clashing steel, sometimes cut by the soft and quick chant of a healing spell. Slowly, step by step, the group retreated while holding the endless waves of furious orcs and goblins.

After what seemed hours to the girls, the familiar continuous chanting began, enheartening them to hold the attackers. And again, used to their friend's pace, they suddenly ducked, leaving the wave of fire to crash against the brainless mob.

They ran again, going as fast as they could, hoping to distance the horde that followed. Only to fail and turn again, facing their enemies in hope of another opportunity.

* * *

They repeated their tactics over and over again, fighting a tide of creatures that seemed more and more endless. In a succession of mad dashes, followed by slow and careful retreat under the blows of crudely made swords and pikes.

They had been fighting for over an hour, working their way along that endless corridor. Max had lost count of the enemies she had killed, the number of times they had to turn back and face the tide, giving up the chance to get faster to the exit.

As exhaustion began to hit them, hope started to fade. _How far had they run? Had they reach the halfway point? Had they reached further? How long before the exit?_ The thought began to nag at them.

Mistakes were made, injuries received, forcing them to use their stock of potion faster than they would have wanted to. And still, they held. In the narrow corridor, where the numbers of goblins and orcs attacking them accounted to nearly nothing, they held. Like King Leonidas' 300, they held.

Another firestorm. Another quick run toward the exit, panting, their virtual lungs seeking more oxygen. In this monotonous corridor, they had no marker to tell them how far they had gone. They could have reached the information on their map, but the oncoming tide of blades did not give them the time for it.

It felt hopeless, each turn to face the enemy looking like the last. The elvish knight grunted with more and more pain and exhaustion as she bore the brunt of the charge. She began to regret their inability to join with another group. Larger groups had more tanks, more shields to cover their retreat, more players to allow them to switch and rest. Larger groups could have staggered their retreat, moving faster, unbothered by the need to turn around as the previous wall would simply run between the ranks of their waiting friends while they sat up a new barricade.

The wizard regretted his adamant request to explore this cave. Unable to fight from close range, he bitterly realized his friends were the ones having to support the consequences of his choice. He felt fear each time a spear, a sword or an axe pierced the defense of the large elvish shield, threatening his friends' lives. He shuddered with each resonating clash of metal against metal, each sound of an avatar shattering making him look at the gauges, symbols of his friends' lives, in panic.

The shinobi cat-girl cursed internally for having caved and accepted to push forward, she cursed her inability to make new friends. And more than all, she cursed every god she knew of, and more, for trying to wreck her life over and over again. _It's not enough they fucked up my real life by putting me in a wheelchair, now they want to kill me in this fucking virtual world!_

As the merry go round tactic kept playing, a new concern began to surface; their stock of potions was dangerously shrinking. The fireballs were a high ranked spell, and Fernando could not recover his MPs as fast as he was using them. Worse, he spent more of them healing the girls during the phase where they had to fight their slow crawling retreat. He had no choice but to gulp those potions one after another so as to keep his ability to use magic.

The girls had begun using their own healing potions to help reduce the use of magical resources, drinking them as they ran in between bouts of struggling melee. It helped, but it was not enough. And as time went and exhaustion settled on, it became even worse.

It was as if the creator had designed this trap specifically to drive despair into the players that dared challenge what proved to be a dungeon. The long and dark tunnel with no exit in sight, the unending wave of monstrous hordes relentlessly and continuously attacking; it all helped driving through the idea of a trap from which you could run, but not escape. It was worse than the quick and relatively painless death one could expect from the various pits, blades and other magical explosions you would find in most games; this one was a death by a thousand cut, the unending and constant administration of small pain with the hope of an escape mixed with depression of not seeing the end of the turmoil.

* * *

Once more, Max and Kristen ducked as a salvo of fireballs hit the wall of virtual orcish flesh like a broadside from a warship. Not needing any word, they leapt to their feet, their legs shaking from the long minutes of continuous fight, and ran on the heels of their wizard friend.

They were growing tired of this battle, this run. How long had it been? It seemed like several hours to them. Max was even beginning to think about making a last stand, see how long they could hold against the tsunami. She would not dare suggest it, though. Even if she did not care for her life anymore, she cared about her friends and she sure would never think about risking their life.

 _I just did, though… I agreed to explore this corridor much further than we should have! And now we won't get out of here!_

Hope was becoming a fibbed thing to them, only the drive for survival was keeping them from giving up, and unlike her friends, she was also lacking in that department.

She threw a quick look at her friends. They looked exhausted, their equipment on the brink of breaking down. She knew their resources were running low, they had begun to use spells and potions at much lower HP levels, trying hard to save as many as possible. It was risky, one good hit could spell their doom; but they had no choice, not if they wanted to escape.

 _Where the fuck is that exit!_

The thought was on all of their minds. Behind them, they could hear the quick steps of the mob chasing them. They would catch up with them soon, again. They would have to cushion the brunt of this mad charge, again.

"Look!"

The sudden hopeful call from Fernando drew both girl's eyes. Was it help? No. It was even better. In the gloomy darkness of the corridor, a blinding light had begun to appear. A light that looked like a halo. _THE EXIT!_

Max looked behind her. Would they make it?

The three friends ran faster, giving everything into this race for survival. The light was closing in, much faster than they thought possible. _That corridor is clearly designed to make you think you won't escape for as long as possible!_

And despite all their wishes, they would not make it. Max held the order for as long as she could, maybe even a bit too long, hoping they would make it to the exit. But in the end, the horde was gaining too fast on them. She had to do it. "SHIELD! COME ON, THIS IS IT! ONE LAST PUSH!" She screamed as they switched formation, the large elvish shield raising in-extremis in front of a wall of blades and spears.

Kristen and Max took a few more glancing blows than before, but nothing critical. Fernando was quick in using a healing spell, after all he had more freedom to do so, soon they'd be out of this trap and able to rest.

The warriors fought like never before, the sight of the light, the knowledge the exit would be made on the next run giving them heart. They sliced, stabbed, cut, diced at the goblins and orcs presenting themselves. Kristen grunted and howled as she shouldered the brunt of the hits on her shield, pushing back while the cat-girl whirled around, both blades dancing with deadly accuracy.

They were going to make it. They all knew it now. They would survive, they would go back to the village and they would laugh about it.

Soon, the chant began. The promise of their freedom. Both girls prepared themselves for their last run. _Fuck, that was way too close!_ Max thought as she noticed the cracks in her companion's armor. Their equipment would not last very long.

But it did not have to last. The chant reached its climax and both girls ducked as one. Fernando had used an even bigger spell, more powerful. It reminded Max of the movies about the old Roman Legions as they 'unleashed the flames of hell'. Orcs, Goblins and whatever else might have been in that mass of hysterical creatures were consumed by the wall of fire, squealing before they popped into millions of particles floating in the air.

The girls and the boy did not look at it, though. They were already running, dashing toward the exit of the dungeon, toward safety.

As they got closer and closer, they felt relief starting to fill their souls. They made it! They had found the dungeon's entrance, triggered a trap and survived!

But another question began to fill Max' mind, another concern. _Will they follow us outside?_

It was a rather important problem. Usually, such a horde of mobs would probably stop short of the cave's exit, the threshold of the dungeon, set as the very limit of the trap. But this game was everything but normal, and Max could see a sick man like Jefferson have the horde follow them until the very city limits.

And that posed another problem. In this narrow corridor, she and Kristen had been enough to block the flow of the large army. But once outside, without the walls to jugulate their charge, nothing would prevent them from overrunning the small group, surrounding them, and crush them.

"AS SOON AS YOU GET OUT, RUN FOR THE NEAREST TREES!" She called to Fernando, deciding to take their best chance to disappear from the enemy's sight.

"OKA-" The wizard began only to be stopped suddenly in its tracks. On his last step on the stone floor before the border marking the exit, he triggered one last trap, and a chain of events spelling doom for the small party.

To Max, everything happened in slow motion, like in a bad movie. She swore she could hear the slight click of the mechanism setting itself in motion, despite the resounding chaos of the thousands boots and feet hitting the stones in their mad rush. In front of them, a wall of spears rose from the floor, at the very edge between the stones of the inside floor and the mud and grass of the outside. And before Fernando even had a chance to avoid them, they pierced him, going right through as they impaled him and lifted him from the floor.

Kristen and Max were stunned by the sight, their eyes watching with horror as the wizard's health gauge dropped inexorably to the red, never stopping until every point disappeared. They remained silent, their eyes wide, their mouth gaping as they did not want to believe in their friend's death. Until his avatar scattered, with a sound of shattering crystal, into bright red polygons that floated for a few seconds before disappearing.

"NOOO!" She heard a voice so close to her own, but raw with pain and horror.

Beside her, the Elvish Knight screamed with grief, "FERNIEEE! NOOOOOO-" her voice cut short and turning to some gargles.

With horror Max turned her head and watched the stunned face of her friend as a large Orc-made spear had been thrown through her neck and poked out from her throat. "KRISTEN!"

The small cat-girl felt her heart sink as her friend's HP dropped toward their end. She could see the fear, the horror in her friend's eyes as she too saw the number getting closer and closer to zero. And then the face froze, and with it Max' heart.

 _Dead! Fernando is… dead! Kristen is dead! No, it can't be true!_

She stood there, dumbfounded at the loss of her only friends, watching as the Elvish Knight disappeared into its own cloud of polygons. She stood there, just two steps from the exit; eyes full of tears.

She watched as the horde of monsters still approached, closer and closer. Her sagging shoulders began to tense and tremble. Pain and despair began to fuel a fire in her she never thought she even had. _I'm alone! I'm all alone! You killed my friends! You killed my only friends!_

"YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" The wail echoed through the corridor as she suddenly charged, alone against the mass of orcs and goblins. "DIIIIIIEEEEE!"

The fight was fierce, but brief. A whirlwind of crisscrossing slashes gutted the first lines of the incoming tide. Max' charged with no care, no regards for her own safety and survival; only hatred, grief and despair filled the small girl's heart. She slashed, unleashing one skill after the other, stabbing and beheading Orcs and Goblins one after another, ignoring the cuts and slices their blades and spear made to her own body.

Her HP were dropping. They did not disappear quickly for she had not received any fatal blows like her friends had. But they were dropping nonetheless. She did not care. She could have saved herself, just by taking those few steps to cross the threshold, but she did not care.

Soon, her HP reached the red. She knew she would die, but she did not care. One more blow, one more hit. She saw the axe approaching, falling toward her shoulder. She did not try to avoid it. She did not care, she even welcomed it! The end of her pain. The end of her suffering. The end, as simple as that.

 _This is it!_

* * *

 **A/N : so here you have it, a new Arcadia Online Chapter!**

 **A sad one I admit, but then SOA wasn't a very happy story I think. I mean there were some character's death you would rather not see.**

 **I had put this story on hold, and it will still remain a slow one, choosing to concentrate on the other two. But I had some inspiration for a chapter here while found myself stuck on the others, so here you go.**

 **Enjoy!**


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